Merivaara Corp.

Integrating Operating Room Management Couldn't Be Easier

With several image sources and other devices in every operating room, precious time from patient care is often being spent on operating these devices. Finnish medical technology expert Merivaara launches a new concept that integrates key control functions, such as image and video management, operating table and light control, and remote consultation into a single system. In addition to its intuitive touch-screen user interface, the system is also based on an open architecture which gives the team freedom to choose both from the functions and devices it wants to control.

Merivaara Corp. strives to provide hospitals and health clinics with cutting-edge and versatile operation room solutions. Merivaara INTEGRA™, which is being launched at Medica 2012, is a revolutionary new concept to integrate operating room functions and help healthcare providers improve workflows and increase efficiency.

With the OpenOR™ system, the core of the Merivaara INTEGRA™ concept, the surgical team can easily manage images and video from several sources, and edit and archive these through a touch-screen panel. The intuitive user interface with clear symbols is available in the user’s own language, which makes it suitable for any user in the surgical team.

Based on an open architecture, the system can be integrated with devices from any manufacturer, and easily incorporated in the existing facilities. The initial user experiences in practice are enthusiastic:

“We have been testing the system for some weeks now, and have found it very simple to use. Merivaara engineers had it installed and ready to go in a day and our staff only needed an hour of training and getting started. The image quality on the screen is very good, also in the laparoscopic procedures,” says Dr Jyrki Kössi, Chief Gastroenterologist at Päijät-Häme Central Hospital, in Finland.

OpenOR™ can also be used for real-time remote consultation, enabling not only flexible telemedicine but also premium level medical teaching.

“The remote consultation mode is really convenient. Surgeons, especially the more junior, quite often need to get a second opinion from another doctor during surgery. It hasn’t been unusual to see surgeons walking from one operating room to another to get consultation from a colleague. With this new tool we can now get immediate audiovisual contact with someone sitting in another room or even in another city, which makes workflows both faster and safer”, Dr Kössi continues.

The Merivaara INTEGRA™ solution including OpenOR™ and, when necessary, other devices such as operating tables and lights, can be tailored to serve any size of surgical facility in a cost-efficient way.